The Book of the Dead

by Kgebetli Moele

Khutso grows up poor in Masakeng and eventually goes to university where he meets Pretty. The two fall in love and get married. But there is no happily ever after here. Pretty has an affair. She contracts HIV and commits suicide, leaving her husband infected with the disease. Devastated, Khutso cuts all ties with his old life and sets out on a quest for vengeance that quickly fills his little black book of revenge with names. The second novel by the award-winning novelist Kgebetli Moele.

Genres: Fiction, Africa, South Africa, Gender, Disability, African Literature, Read For School

172 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2010

Reviews

[Sipho Lukhele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, were do I even start? This book is less than 200 pages and is divided into two sections; book of the living, as well as the title, book of the dead. I found the plot twist amazing and Mr. Moele's story telling gift just phenomenal. Definitely vast improvement, as far as quality is concerned, from his debut book.

Khutso is the main protagonist and like many people his generation, he did not have a smooth upbringing. He escaped porvety through education and did very well for himself, that is up until he learned something terrible after the death of his wife. That is as far as the first book, the book of the living, goes.

Then we are introduced to a demonised Khutso, whose conscience has been outsourced to the "living" virus. I am emphasing the word living as the virus is potrayed as a metaphor, in a form of a human. This is a concept that was used in a TV drama a few years ago called Intersexions. Wether or not Mr. Moele was acknowledged as the person behind the idea is something I am not sure of but I really doubt. I know I am digressing, but I think he was plagiarised.

After all is said and done; I highly recommend this book, which I have known about for a very long time, took time not only to get a copy but delayed reading after getting one. It was worth all the wait and I am looking forward to reading Kgebetli's other book, Untitled.

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

a book you just want to keep reading, shocking but different! I was a little disappointed with the ending but I am looking forward to reading the author's previous book 'Room 207'

[Natalie Rae Denton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! Reality that hits you hard in the face! A must read!

[Nkcubeko · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Book of the Dead feels simpler than Room 27, but the story is told in a lyrically-enchanting and experimental format. Moele is a storyteller of highest order, and in tackling South Africa's HIV epidemic he fails to come short as a writer worthy. It is interesting that regardless of what he writes on, culture and cultural disjuncture flow through his pen and onto his page, creating a big mess that throws the reader into an internal dystopia. Truly a writer of the most precious kind.

[Lara Crafford · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Kinosfronimos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heavy as f*ck

[Andrea D. McCarthage · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note: This novel contains repeated graphic depictions of sexual assault

[erin detlefsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

ENGL: 2560

[Mimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

whoever said Russians write the most depressing literature hasn't read South African literature

[Nkolele Mkhondo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book of the dead by Kgebetli Moele

Covers the life of Khutso, a black boy raised in poverty, and he lived his whole life trying to be better and do better so when given a chance to marry the prettiest girl in University he did so without batting his eyelids. His was a somewhat perfect life, a good job, a good marriage, and a supportive mother and as if that is not enough, he was blessed with a son. His good life takes a turn when his wife commits suicide when she finds out that she is HIV positive. Out of anger, he decides to sleep with any woman who dares to look at him just to spread the virus and write their names on the Book of the Dead.

The Book of the Dead is a very painful book to get into because it is a real reflection on life in our societies. The relationship dynamics of how men are portrayed in this book, how women find themselves with this virus in their body simply because they trusted a smooth talker, how being disloyal can affect many people not just you, your partner and your sidepiece but also your sidepiece’s sidepiece and probably even your partner’s sidepiece and then it becomes an endless circle.

I gave this book a five out of five because it was out of this world, I cried, howled and screamed while reading this book. It’s very short, eye-opening and perfectly written. It’s the kind of book that I can talk about all day and one of my best reads this year.

[Bren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is dazzling, and disturbing. Halfway through, after the main character finds out he is HIV positive, the disease begins to speak, and takes over both the narrative and the psyche of the infected man; together they add as many people to the disease's "legions" as they can. The voice of AIDS is that of a sinister, mocking serial killer. It says to one of its victims:

"Thabiso. I am in your blood and your heart pumps the death that I am to every corner. I have taken a bite of you and I will slowly take another one. You are my Cape apple, and I am going to eat you down to the core before I chuck you away. My advice: blame it on your husband. Chances are he was cheating on you anyway. What are you thinking? I know, you are thinking about a miracle. You think that I will go away if you believe in the Almighty and go to church every Sunday, if you pray every second. But you are wrong. It is all useless. It is all futile."

The novel is leanly, beautifully written, and I read it in one go. I think it's meant to scare its readers into using condoms with absolutely no exceptions; fair enough. But its cynical implications about human relationships, that sex is fatal and that no-one can be trusted, leave me uneasy. I think we might be meant to despise the misogyny of aids-personified, whose attitude to women is quite different from the narrative voice of the first half of the book (the woman who infects the main character and her checkered sexual history are treated with sympathy in that section), but the disease's voice is more compelling, and its claim that all women are foolish, vain, and slutty enough to be manipulated into bed turns out to be true. So at the end of the day, I'm not sure how I feel about this book.

[Tony Vrnjas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple and engaging writing about a horrific subject. The reality of AIDS is coupled with revenge leading to a horrofic sequence of events.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed the book for Flavorpill

[Luis Rolando Durán Vargas]

Una novela impactante, de gran ritmo. Una realidad, que si bien es mundial, en África tiene magnitud catastrófica. En esa dimensión nos la muestra el autor

[Lerato Radebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read. An eye opener!

[Baggio Luvhengo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shocking but exposed the horrible trauma that one suffers when they don't want to accept their aids status...

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely chilling tale of the spread of HIV, as told through the eyes of the serial-killer virus.

[Juergen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written - gripping, presented in a way that holds your attention. The harsh reality of living with a certain demon.

[Tanja (Litteraturhesten)]

Sydafrika

[Tumelo Motaung · Rating 3 out of 5]

Notshe. This was the name I was to give my son, because for some odd reason bees followed me around while he swam in the tummy. "This child will be as lively as a bee," my grandmother urged. I however, knew well enough the things children said to each other on the playground. Names are the easiest way to mark your child as a target for soft-bullying.
There was a Matlakala in my third grade class. I remember wondering why parents would give children such names each time someone stood by the bin and shouted, "Eh Matlakala, o tletse maan, kgante why ba sao tsholle?" The worst were probably the ambitious names. You didn't want to be a Professor, Doctor, or Botlhale and not make the top ten list at the end of term.
Pretty, as the name suggests, was pretty. Girls like her were not for marriage but for show, so people believed. They believed that her kind were made for sharing amongst men, as no one man could ever handle such beauty alone without jealousy rendering him insane.
Now, Pretty's parents were wise. A poor girl from the rural north, it wasn't long before her beauty made her the subject of sexual abuse. But pretty was also intelligent and it was her beauty that would guarantee her full tuition at the University of the North.
Khutso went to the University of the North. The last of seven children, his mother always hoped he would be the one to make her proud. If I were reading Francine Rivers' Redeeming Love, Khutso would be Hosea, Pretty his Angel. And so it was that he rescued her from whoredom and with her made a home.
From that day on he looked for her in every lecture he attended, and as soon as he would see her he would give her a virtual hug and a kiss on the cheek. Sweetheart, how are you? He would ask her in his mind.
How difficult is it though for a woman with a hard past to go back to her old ways once her feelings of insecurity are aroused? Thabang, their son, was Khutso's pride and joy, and the gateway to Pretty's demons, whom she brought home.
Kgebetli Moele's The Book of the Dead is written in two parts. The first part ends with Pretty's suicide, beginning the second with the HI Virus as narrator. Here, the virus keeps a book, where Khutso, now living in Tshwane and estranged from his son, makes entries of every woman he infects.
In the first page of the book Khutso quotes Goodenough Mashego, "And every bitch I ever loved, I wish an Aids-related death." He is angry, he is disappointed in himself, and the only way to make up for the time he lost loving the woman who introduced death to him is to use his newfound wealth to pass on his newfound status.

I thought of Sue Nyathi's The Polygamist while reading this book, and wondered whether Kgebetli had read it, whether Sue had read this. Chapter by chapter as the virus introduced me to new victims, I thought of people I had lost in similar ways. It forced a reflection. I thought back to 2009, the year the book was published, and when I had my first child despite an informative talking-to by my father about the virus.
I thought about now, and wondered where this AIDS we so feared currently lives. Not on worn-out mattresses, hidden behind curtains. Not on sore-filled heads or in clothes that are suddenly too big. Nope. Today's AIDS does not jump out the window and leave the suit behind like Matilda's lover in Can Themba's The Suit.
Today's AIDS is the suit. It sits with us at the table, shares our meals, and goes for walks with us. And unlike Tilly, we don't fear it. We welcome it and call it friend. No more are we reduced to naming our children Sello, Matlhoko, or Moleko. We do not make it to the book of the dead.
Filled with remorse, Khutso drove to Pretty's grave night after night in a sea of tears. Be always knew what he wanted to say when he left the house, but when he got to the grave he never knew how to make sense of his thoughts. He would simply start to cry, holding on to the fresh soil as if Pretty was the soil and the soil, somehow, Pretty.
I loved this book. Read it in one seating. A book every young person should read.